With criticism mounting about Kristaps Porzingis’ long-term durability, Jeff Hornacek quickly came to the 7-foot-3 Latvian’s defense on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Monday’s was the 26 best-looking points Porzingis has scored in a while, and it came at a perfect time. Even before the Nets game, Hornacek put in a Porzingis plug to eradicate claims his pattern is one of wearing down in winter because of his slender frame.

“Look at Anthony Davis, his body from Year 1 to Year 4 or 5,” Hornacek said. “Bigger guys might take a year or two longer with the weights. You can see the difference between Year 1 and now [with Porzingis], and that’s only going to get better as years go on.”

Hornacek is sensitive to the notion that Porzingis is not destined for pure greatness because of durability concerns.

“This is part of growing into this role,’’ Hornacek said. “Third year in the league, playing bigger minutes. He’s been put in a lot of new scenarios being the guy who has to get us a bucket at the end of games, defensive stops, bigger minutes. That stuff is experience, getting trained to do that. You can’t think there won’t be ups and downs. Three years from now, you won’t be asking these questions [about durability].”

Porzingis admitted after the Nets game he probably was taking his role as the franchise player too literally, feeling he needed to lead the team in shots every night and duplicate the 30-point games from earlier in the season.

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Porzingis launched just 14 attempts, making eight of them, as Hornacek wisely reduced his minutes to 28. Hornacek said he mainly played him less and in shorter bursts because it was the second night of a back-to-back but will revisit it, pending the schedule. Hornacek said bench players are more used to playing in six-minute bursts than career starters.

Courtney Lee’s pursuit of the franchise record for consecutive free throws made also shed light on how much more he needs to get to the free-throw line. After all, Lee leads the league in free-throw percentage (96 percent). He finally tied Chris Duhon’s record of 44 straight free throws made in Brooklyn, but it took a technical foul on the Nets to get him there. Lee hasn’t drawn a shooting foul in four straight games, in which he’s totaled 137 minutes.